Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side-sim: New Normal

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side-sim: New Normal

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side-sim: New Normal
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Rand wasn’t going to let him out of the PT exercises. The more consistently and frequently he did them the sooner he was done. She met him in the hallway, dressed for the gym, carrying her bag with her. What he did not know was if he had refused to go she had the bands already and they would have done the exercises in his quarters.

Once in the gym she set her bag in the locker room and then grabbed the bands and sat on the mat. It was only them in the gym, again. “Where do you want to start?”

Rand

Roman followed her to the gym and set his own bag in the locker room. He wasn’t planning on doing PT exercises, so he hadn’t brought his crutch. He met her at the mat and frowned at the bands. “Not with those.” He could do upper body workouts. But he didn’t want to do PT, especially since he wasn’t really in the mood to be here in the first place.

~ Roman

Rand had picked up her band and placed it around her foot, starting her own exercises. At his words she paused and looked up at him. “If you don’t get your leg better, you can’t take me dancing.” She glanced at her own band as if considering if she should consider her own exercises. And then after a pause she continued the exercises for her foot. She was hiding a slight smile from him. Rand was actually a very accomplished dancer, but it was certainly something that she didn’t practice on board. Though Randy wasn’t bad it wasn’t like she wanted to dance with her brother. But she was simply teasing Roman, trying to get him to do the exercises. She did not expect that to work. Nope, she figured she’d have to stop going to his PT appointments. Claim that she had other work to do and the appointments were dragging out for so many weeks she had to put work before them. Or even lament ‘by accident’ that he wasn’t able to run with her anymore. He was here and exercising so that was good.

Rand

Roman paused, and then grinned. “Alright, then. I’ll do my exercises if you let me take you to the ship’s Valentine’s dance.” There was a dance every year, and Roman usually only spent enough time there to be able to say he went. He never wanted to actually dance with anyone. But he wanted to dance with Rand, and he knew she’d not go unless he had a way to convince her to. He didn’t want to do his PT, heck, he didn’t even want to go to the appointments. But if he got to take her to the dance he was going to have to go to anyway… It was worth it.

~ Roman

She thought Roman was joking. He’d never make her go to one of those awful things. A huge crowd of people, having to talk to them, not to mention having to decide what to wear. (Okay so maybe Randy would totally take care of that, but she’d have to deal with his teasing first.) She’d have a massive attack and everyone would see and it would ruin her career. Rand grinned at him continuing to joke and tease. A sure sign she was comfortable around him. “I’m counting on it. Otherwise my choices are Randy or Mr. Dummy. And I love my brother but I think he’d rather go with Morgan, and Mr Dummy is just too forward.” But in a slight moment of seriousness, “There’s no one else I would want to go with.” If she did go, which she knew they weren’t.

Rand

Roman smiled like he did when he saw she’d made him shepherd’s pie for his birthday, and then he sat down on the mat and picked up one of the resistance bands. He had the perfect tux, he used it for all the events like this. “Mr Dummy has nothing on me, not one person would pick him over me.” He joked and then smiled again when she said there was no one else she’d go with. “Then if my leg is fit enough for dancing by February fourteenth, dance we shall.”

~ Roman

Rand watched him sit and grab a band. Butterflies took wing in her stomach. He wanted to dance with her. Rand could only think of a few things more personal, more intimate, more connective between two people than dancing. The idea of dancing with Roman made her smile and flush slightly. They weren’t going, not to the actual dance. He was teasing her, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t dance away from such an overwhelming social event.

Besides, Roman was far far too stubborn about his leg and steadfast in his refusal to cooperate. Right now it was enough for him to tease her by doing the work. In a couple of days she’d have to find another way to goad him into the work. “A month and a half. You can do that. Hold this for me?” And she passed him the ends of her band.

Rand

“A month and a half.” Roman said. He held the end of her band, and then had her hold his for his stretches. Just to prove he was serious, he did the balance board and the bike when he was done with the band. His leg was sore when he was done, but if he was going to make the valentine’s dance, he was going to have to deal with that.

By the end of that week, when Roman took the experimental treatment to dissolve the clots, he had done his exercise every day, either before or after work. The clots passed, and Roman marked the date and time. He also noted that he had experienced the back ache caused by kidney pain proceeding each clot passing. He started using his crutch less.

By the end of the next week, he was almost never using his crutch, but he still couldn’t stand for too long without a break or assistance and he was still limping, but less noticeably, and Sovak had noticed the swift improvement. Roman had been on track to finish PT nearly a month late. Now he was back on track to be done in mid February. He was still experiencing pain after PT or after doing his PT exercises and after standing or walking too long, but the length of time he could walk and his speed were both improving.

~ Roman

The clot treatment made Rand’s stomach churn. She was so worried and hyper-focused on the possible negative side effects she could barely eat. When Roman mentioned a minor backache, she knew it was normal but she was till worried. But they disappeared as soon as the clots were gone. All four were removed without incident it was obvious for the next several days that something had changed for her because she was much more relaxed and energetic than she had been. Roman stuck with the daily exercises longer than Rand expected. She saw the improvement it was making for him. Even though his leg was sore after the work, in the mornings he was always able to complete a full duty shift with fewer breaks each day. He also didn’t rub at his leg often. Usually only days that he had a full PT session. By the time the PT session at the end of the next week, Roman was needing the heating pad less and less. He still used it but it usually only took a few minutes to help ease the ache. When Sovak said he was back on schedule Rand was thrilled. She wasn’t sure what was making him work so hard but she was thankful for it

Rand